This calls for state of emergency, the statistics are terrible The Poor North: How The Northern Governors Starve The Region and Its People by Suhaibu When I came back to my home town in the north, after finishing my one year service in Ibadan in 2007, I felt as if I was lost in the shriveled land… Hazing dust all over our skies. Little cars moving on our roads. Almajirai running about on our streets. And the indigenous population was muddled and messy. I felt that the region was troubled with one big problem: poverty. Then, I linked the problem to the Federal Government’s inability or unwillingness to control its states. Today, I found out that the poverty-stricken north is interrelated to the “leadership deficit” on the part of the northern leaders, and the cruel administration of the 19 governors of the northern states... Prior to the discovery of petroleum products in Olaibiri, in the Niger Delta’s south in 1956, the country’srevenue was largely sourced from the agricultural production of the northern region, until the “oil boom” in 1970s. It was this “oil boom” that made the Federal Government excited enoughto turn back on the agricultural sector and takeup the oil sector as if it’s itsonly source of subsistence. As the livelihood of the region was neglected, the northern governors did nothing in their powers to salvage the starving state. Because these leaders are not committed and compassionate to their people, every sector in the area is badly affected. Takethe agricultural sector, for example. Despite the fact that agriculture is the only pride of the zone, the governors haven’t come with any successful policies to improve the sector. With their enough state allocations, the governors still fail to provide enough fertilizers, modern farm tools, and pesticide products to local farmers toenhance farming and protect farm crops. In the north, old farming implements, such as the outmoded hoes, are still themain farming tools used by the farmers. Many local farmers are still using oxen to plough their farm soil. And inasmuch as the authorities are not providing mechanized farming tools for the farmers to meet the challenges of the new age, agricultural sector in the area will continue to sink! Why are the northern governors careless about the needs of their people? Two main theories are offered. First, the disconnection theory which argues that northern governors are out of touch with their people. Classical examples of this theory areseen in many states in the region. Earlier this year in Kano; forexample, the state government came up with mass wedding program, which aimed at providing security for widows and divorcees and reduce social vices in the state. While the aim of the program is promising, it was totally off the point. It misfire the need and aspiration of young, vibrant men and women in the state who would rather be employed, get enough electricity to power their businesses, andhave their food prices fall than to have another partner added to their lives. In a state where more thanhalf of its population can’t maintain a 3 square meal a day, wedding program is nota priority. When a gang of unemployed youths is troubling a city of more than 9 million people, workable programs that willprovide jobs and food to the people is what needs tobe implemented. If Kwankwaso truly understands the needs of his people, he would have done something differently. In Kebbi State, we haven’t seen a thing. Not even a misfiring program. It’s very hard to tell what the state government has been doing since its first tenure. There are some 3 million people in the state sharing one substandard Federal MedicalCenter. Kebbi State is among the 10 states of thernorth with highest povertylevel. According to Professor Charles Soludo, the former Governor of Central Bank, inhis paper title: “Preserving Stability and Accelerating Growth,” which he presented in 2007, he stated that: “89.7% of people in Kebbi State are poor.” Yet, the state government has not come with any policy to address the excruciating hunger in the state. And the problems that are facing Kebbi are the same problems affecting Sokoto, Kaduna, and Zamfara State.In virtually all the 19 northern states of Nigeria, less or nothing has been done by the governors to help develop the region andthe people that live in it. Second, there is the selfish theory which argues that the northern governors areonly fighting for themselves. While the leaders know what is going on in the region, this theory argues that the governors “don’t give a damn” to serve the masses. This is supported bythe selfish agenda of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). Over the years, repetitive talks have been held in Kaduna. But if you listen to these talks closely, you’ll notice that it’s never abouthow to solve the growing unemployment in the region,how to improve the human capital in the land, or how to enhance the educational sector of the area, especially women education. The unending discussions were never about the people; they were personal – about private programs of the Arewa leaders, their families, and cronies. I wonder whether the northern leaders are awareof the educational statisticsin the north; for example, which indicates that 94% of women (42% of men) in Jigawa State alone are illiterate and more than twothirds of 15–19-year-old-girls in the north are unableto read a sentence, compared to less than 10% in the south. Are such statistics being discussed at the ACF meetings in Kaduna? I doubtso! The latest poverty indices released by the National Bureau of Statistics, which puts the north at the top of poverty ladder, is a testimony of the region’s decay and the ACF’s self-centered policies. The report indicated that the North-West and North-East geo-political zones recorded the highest poverty rate in the countrywith 77.7% and 76.3% respectively in 2010, while the South-West geo-politicalzone recorded the lowest at 59.1%, with Sokoto Staterecording the highest poverty rate in the region, at 86.4%. Sometimes, you wonder where the state’s subventions are going. Clearly, it’s the northern governors that are diverting the funds to their own personal accounts, but continue to weigh in the cheap argument that uneven distribution of nation’s resources is to be blamed for the northern famish. The allocations givento each state in the region are enough to dig boreholes, grow crops, and create jobs in every state in the north. Failure of the Northern governors to utilize their allocations to improve the lives of their people is what propels the development of the radical sect of Jama’at Ahlil-Sunnah Li-Da’awati Wal Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s teaching and Jihad, popularly known as “Boko Haram”). Boko Haram began with some pockets of radical Islamist in 2002, which have been marginalized by their leaders and ended up at the hands of a cleric who saw the need to adopt violent, stringent ideology under the umbrella of the most peaceful religion to take laws into his own hands. The sect’s leader – Mohammad Yusuf – saw the need to give voice to the voiceless through the formation of a terrorist militia and the application ofviolence. Since more than 60% of theyouths in the region are jobless, it’s easy for Yusuf to gain recruits. And while the majority of these youths are illiterate, they join the militia of Yusuf blindly. These recruits have caused an indelible insult to many innocent Muslims who are practicing the correct version of Islam that they –the recruits and their brainwashers – have misunderstood. Parents wept and families mourned their children who they trust to never join some atrocious sect of terrorism, but did. Young folks join the sect and fought for it. They used their precious lives to kill and maim thousands of innocent Nigerian lives. Theyshed tears in their own families and the families of those they killed. All these killings and mayhem, in one way or another, can be safely attributed to the leaders ofthese people – the northern leaders – who lefttheir poor masses with littleor no option. Northern governors have much blood in their hands (whether they choose to believe the facts or not). Mohammad Yusuf took his time to utilize these wastedfolks that have no food to eat, no homes to sleep, andno job to hold on to, and recruit them to his militia, promising to give them something better as long asthey adhere to his iniquitous ideology. In his mosque in Maiduguri, Mohammad Yusuf used to give his recruits food and date and shelter, somethingthat the northern governors denied these same people for so long. I know my region is rich; I just don’t know if my leaders – all of them, including the emirs who dictate from their thrones –are good enough to tap into its resources to develop the region and feedits people. The leadership style of these governors is authoritarian, which is the reason why they’re strict and stern, and characterized with greediness, selfishness, and dumb attitudes in addressing the real issues confronting their people. It’s these factors that contribute to the region’s famine and deterioration and herald the birth of terrorism in northern Nigeria. The trend has set forth and its impact, today, is what we are witnessing –nonstop bombings throughout the region. And if critical care is not taking, this tension will escalate, and the nation will entirely submerge into a bloodier national war.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:05:37 +0000
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